


when the lights go out (will you take me with you?)

by emmisaysmufasa



Category: Donnie Darko (2001), Hereditary (2018)
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-28 05:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19387474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmisaysmufasa/pseuds/emmisaysmufasa
Summary: not for profit, not affiliated with the teams behind these 2 movies, just an idea i had at like 3 AM





	when the lights go out (will you take me with you?)

The room goes dark quicker than Roberta expected.  
"Roberta. We have to go."  
She turns to face her.  
Soft skin, harsh eyes that always softened on Roberta, eyes that stayed on Roberta. Were meant to.  
"I can't."  
Jean cups Roberta's face in her hands.  
"My love. We both know what has to happen. For these two boys to fulfil their respective destinies...."  
Tears welled up in her eyes. She wanted to brush them away, but she couldn't when Joan's eyes were fixed so intensely, yet so gently, on her own.  
"I love you."  
"I love you too. I will find you again, I promise you. And both of us will have everything we need to be together."  
She kisses Roberta for one last time, then embraces her tightly, tears leaking out of her own eyes. It had to be done.

SIXTEEN YEARS LATER

Roberta woke to the sunrise pouring in through her window, painting her walls shades of gold and pink. She poured herself a cup of tea, looking regretfully at the other mug that had remained unused all these years.  
It was hard to fall asleep in her bed, when she knew Joan wasn't there to hold her- couldn't be. And she knew it was for the best, that she had to set things into motion. Had to make sure Peter fulfilled his role, the same as Roberta had to make sure Donnie did his. It didn't make the absence of Joan's arms around her tug any less around her heart.  
It was the day things were meant to have started falling into place.  
Roberta didn't have a television. Didn't believe in the loud assault from glaring screens. She made do with her books and her record player, from since she had been a little girl. Her cat sat on the bed, eyeing her warily. Almost as though it, too, had a sense of what was going to happen in this town.

She had been waiting for Joan for sixteen years. Every day, walking to the mailbox, going back, walking to the mailbox, going back. Never anything from Joan.  
Maybe it was time to give up, she realised, but that didn't mean she wouldn't always have that deep reminder of what she had lost.  
Even some knowledge, on how things were coming along with the Graham family. But she knew she couldn't interfere. So she had stayed, stuck, sixteen years, watching baby Donnie Darko grow up. Trying to remember what Joan had told her- "our sacrifice will pale next to the rewards."  
She and Joan had always known their love was impossible. Working for opposite sides, Roberta working to save the universe, Joan to find a vessel for Paimon, to wreak havoc on the universe. But they had always had a connection from the moment they met, like a string from heart to heart. They kept their love a secret, late night meetings in the gardens, hidden notes. But when everyone found out, they were pushed apart. The way Roberta knew, deep in her heart, they always would be. Joan wouldn't turn her back on the cult, Roberta knew that, and it made her wish so deeply that their love was enough.  
It was 6 PM when she heard the news.  
The death of Donald Darko, aged sixteen, survived by his two sisters and his parents.  
Two days latter, she came back from the market, to her mailbox. What she found, or didn't find, could break her entirely. She opened it, holding a breath.  
An envelope. Rose-gold, with a wax seal. She opened it, to find a newspaper clipping, about the death of the Graham family. Survived by their seventeen year old son, "Peter."  
At the bottom of the clipping, there were words scrawled in a familiar font, making Roberta's heart ache as she read it.  
"I'm sorry. I will always love you."


End file.
